Crossing Lines, Laws and Love
by lumos maximum
Summary: “We’re spinning Draco,” I murmured with my eyes closed because Draco Malfoy had me doing more than crossing lines, laws and love. He had me spinning...
1. See You Tomorrow

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters in this fiction, J.K.R owns them and she alone.

**Challange:** _Five Chapter Challange_ by _daysandweeks_ over at HPFC!  
Five prompts,  
five chapters,  
**one ship. **  
_Enjoy. _

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**Crossing Lines, Laws and Love  
**By: Lumos Maximum

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Chapter one:  
**See You Tomorrow**

It all started in my office really, a normal day with important papers that needed attention, books that needed to be read and investigations that needed to be done thoroughly. I was attending to these _very_ important things but got interrupted by someone opening my office door with a wrinkled nose, staring at my office extremely disliking and then at me we with the same kind of look.

There was a silence in the room all the sudden, not the comfortable one I strived to keep but a stiff, tense one that made me feel and perhaps look dumbfounded.

"I know you hate me Granger," Malfoy started when he walked very poised and calmly towards me with determines in his steps. What an opening line.

"I do," I confessed. "I hate you a lot." Guess he has more brains than I gave him credit for.

"And you help innocent people?" Malfoy asked when he got seated in front of me in a very aristocratic fashion, smirking because he knew the answer already.

"Depends," I told him. "I don't help innocent scumbags."

"Not scumbags? I thought you were a lawyer," Malfoy continued amused by this conversation and stating the obvious, again. "A very good one if the rumors I've heard are true."

"I don't know of being a very good one," I said, slightly modest while sitting in front of my wall with plaques. "Rumors are rumors."

"That's what I said to Blaise," Malfoy said causally while he pierced me with his gray eyes. "I told him I would believe him when I saw the miracle with my own eyes."

"Really?" I said, offended but not surprised by his lack of heart or manners, socially accepted manners at least. "Sorry, Malfoy, but I am not for display."

"That could be arranged," Malfoy's bored tone assured. I didn't agree.

"You're in my office now aren't you?" I replied venomous. "Perhaps I should arrange for you to leave?"

"Please," Malfoy said, still using the bored tone to aggravate me more. "Even if I'll get tossed out by those wannabe Aurors you call Potter and Friend, I'll find my way back."

"Harry and Ron," I corrected.

He yawned. "That's what I said Granger, Potter and Friend."

"Get out," I ordered. "Get out of my office now Malfoy."

"I'll get out," Malfoy assured and stood up to straighten his unwrinkled gray suit. "I'll see you tomorrow however," he said, still with the icy stare fixed at me.

"No you won't," I told him and tried to hide the Goosebumps his fixed stare gave me.

"Yes I will," Malfoy said now, calmly and almost bored by these events that I never saw coming. "You can't stand not saving the world Granger."

"You're not worth saving," I told him grimly.

"See? There's where you're wrong because I am worth saving. I am the world," Malfoy said, cocky and self-absorbed and defiantly out of his mind.

"You're _not_ the world" I snapped while thinking if I could get him declared as mentally deranged and make him end up in St Mungos?

"Perhaps not now, but I will be" Malfoy assured. "See you tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that until you accept to take me as a client and ultimately saving the world"

"You are not the world!" I burst out, now standing in front of him behind my desk and realizing how small I really am when he looks down at me.

"Not yet Granger, Not yet." Malfoy said and turned and left with me more than boiling mad.

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"Lawyer Granger, has a ring to it, doesn't it?" Malfoy said while he turned my desk up-side-down, simply because he could.

"Leave that alone," I burst and tried to save my stapler.

"Muggle things, rich," Malfoy said bemused while he clicked the stapler.

"Go!" I snapped. It had gone a week since Malfoy had come to my office the first time and since that day he came back every day, always at 2 P.M and with some kind of trick up his sleeve.

"Take my case," Malfoy repeated for the eleventh time this visit.

"You never told me what it was about!" I reminded him but he ignored me tactically.

"I'll tell you eventually" Malfoy said, still clicking away with the stapler. "Take my case"

"I have things to do!" I tried to tell him, angry with his annoying presence.

"Lawyer Granger, Lawyer Granger… No, sorry. Don't buy it yet." Malfoy snickered to himself. "I saw you as a boring version of McGonagall"

"Seriously?" I said, unwillingly offended by his comment.

"Dead serious," Malfoy told me while he pocketed the stapler without asking for permission. "Will you take my case then Professor McGonagall?"

"Go!" I burst out, furious with Malfoys bullying and the loss of my nicest stapler.

"Fine, I have errands to run, girls to swoon" Malfoy declared. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I know." I sighted but Malfoy didn't mind, he smiled, warmly. "Don't smile like that, you look kind."

"Copy that," Malfoy said but did something even scarier. He hummed on his way out.

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"I bought you flowers," Malfoy declared when he entered my workspace at 2 P.M to my annoyance.

"I don't care," I told him buried in my papers and refused to give him the pleasure of my attention. I am a very important person, mind you.

"Come on, have a look," Malfoys voice said from a far. "They're your favorites."

"I still don't care, just go!" I said but after two weeks of this daily torment I knew he wouldn't go anywhere.

"I am sure that Potter or Friend never brings you _these_ kinds," Malfoy assured and I stopped scribbling on the same line on the parchment I've been scribbling on since Malfoy entered the room.

"Ron, Ronald Weasley," I told Malfoy without even glancing up.

"Nevertheless," Malfoy said, ignoring my correction completely. "I brought you flowers to celebrate our two weeks and you don't even glance up."

Unwillingly I looked at Malfoy who stood in front of me on the other side of the desk, suited in dark blue for this day's occasion, blond hair slicked back and gray teasing eyes observing me with triumph. He was long and slim and I noted extremely pale, paler than I remembered him from Hogwarts and paler than I remembered him being since he started ruining my work. A small stray of blond hair fell into his eyes but he kept his attention strictly on my eyes. I forgot what I was going to look up for when we stared into each other eyes, they were so gray and cold and...

"I have that effect," Malfoy murmured with his eyes still paralyzing my mind. Slightly.

I gazed at the well dressed and obnoxious man in front of me. "What effect?" I asked him curiously and added "Malfoy" to make my question less personal.

"The effect that makes women forget _things_," Malfoy smirked. "Like you forgetting the flowers I never bought you."

I blinked. Flowers? I blinked again. Flowers!

"Out!" I yelled, this time furious at him and his bloody effect on me. "Go out and don't bother coming back tomorrow Malfoy"

"But I will bother," Malfoy told me grinning.

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"Malfoy," I said, gesturing to the chair in front of me as soon as he opened my office door, not a minute later or early, he was there two sharp.

"Improvement," Malfoy said while tugging his black tie and sat down in front of me.

"I don't have a choice now, do I?" I asked. I had to ask because if there was a shot of getting rid of this two o clock pain I would've seized it.

"Not when I made up my mind, no," Malfoy confessed.

"Fair enough," I said and got a note pad and a ink pen out, mostly to annoy Malfoy with the use of Muggle equipment. "Tell me about your case"

"Don't pretend Granger, you read the daily prophet as much as I do," Malfoy said dryly but his eyes locked onto the ink pen in my hand. "Muggle things, extremely amusing those muggles no wonder…"

"Careful," I warned and Malfoy looked startled at me.

"Alright," Malfoy said, clearing his throat. "I need help with the Death Eater hearings."

"Yeah, those cases are unbeatable. Too much evidence, angry mobs and shattered families supporting the mobs" I paused. "Aren't those hearings strictly for Death Eaters?"

Malfoy burst into a hysteric and extremely unnatural laughter, high pitched and painful to listen to and I forgot what I was going to say. "I might've blinded you with my charm and wits but you seem to forget one thing"

"What?" I asked briskly. I never forget things; I am always on top of things.

Instead of telling me he hauled up his sleeve to show me the mark. I suddenly remembered the manor, the pain and the screams when I saw the hideous mark burned into one of my former classmates. One, slightly obnoxious but bearable man I've been visited by everyday for three weeks; he had been one of them and it looked horrid against the paleness his arm was. I felt the pain of the curses that hit me that night. I saw the fright in Rons eyes when I stared at the face of Malfoy, just like his fathers and Harry, what would Harry say?

"I won't help your father," I heard myself yell somewhere outside my own head and I continued bravely. "He is a rotten man and I won't help any of those filthy…"

"Me," Malfoy interrupted me and stood up like being in the same room hurt him gravely. "It's me who need. . . aid"

"I, I" I stuttered, choking on the lump in my throat. So many memories were attached to Malfoys face, so many horrible memories.

"I'm sor — I apol." Malfoy stopped in mid sentence and glanced at me with a look I think was worried. "Forget this ever happened."

Just as he turned around and walked to the door something in me stopped Malfoy. "Wait. You'll be coming back tomorrow, right?"

Malfoy seemed to consider this. "If you want me too?"

I hesitated. I really didn't want him coming back and the word 'No' was my ticked out. Instead of uttering a simple word there was a silence, a too long silence. Merlin, why did I pause this long?

"I'll be back tomorrow," Malfoy said shortly and somehow I was glad that de decided this for me. "I'll be back until you take my case."

And he left.

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"Granger," Malfoy said, 2 P.M sharp in my office as always.

"Go," I replied, as always.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Malfoy said coolly.

"Go, go, go," I repeated without even trying to come with a comeback like I've done the last month. Things were stiff since last week but I got to hand it to Malfoy, he came back determined and even brought me the flowers he promised (and two days later with my wand too close to his throat he admitted that those were from the Friend in Potter and Friend).

"Granger, you know what, okay," Malfoy looked beaten for a while when he watched me wave my hands with fury. "I'll go permanently."

"Go, go". I stopped with my hands in the mid air and my facial expression in an awkward freeze. "What?"

"I said okay," Malfoy said with a sincere voice, or what I assume was sincere because it was still cold. "You should do something with your face though, that expression doesn't suit you."

"Oh, shut up," I said, slightly embarrassed that still in his defeated state he was able to be the superior one. "You said okay, to leaving. Forever."

"I recall that moment yes," Malfoy said calmly from the opposite of my chair.

"Don't play games Malfoy," I ranted.

"That's the only thing I know," Malfoy explained. "Games and fine wines."

The conversation paused and then I chose to speak.

"Fine, if you'll stop intruding my workspace like this every day I'll help you with your case." I told him.

"Okay," Malfoy said without bothering to thank me. He stood up in ordinary fashion and straightened his unwrinkled suit, black today, and headed towards a door I've shut in front of his face multiplied times this month.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Malfoy said facing me one last time. "And the day after that and the day after that until my case has been won," Malfoy added casually.

"I expect nothing less Malfoy," I said. Because, after this long month, how could I?

"I knew you would soften up eventually, Granger," Malfoy said and turned his back towards me to leave the room. "Of course you'd want to save the world."

I could _hear_ his lips smirking as he spoke those words and I, kind of, liked it.

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**SwedishA/N:** Damn, I started writing H/Hr but it turned into Dramione! First time I've written Dramione though so Feedback would be excellent guys :).  
_Lumos Maximum._


	2. Winning The Game

**SwedishA/N:** Okay, so this should really be a chapter fic I realize but I don't have the time AND I never understood or cared much for this term before this chapter was written but I'll say it now : _this_ is probably the weakest Dramione piece in this fiction. I want to make the story believable, that's all.

I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.

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II:**  
Winning The Game **

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I don't know how I ended up here, honestly, but I was at Malfoys home. Not the manor, a place I vowed to never be in ever again, this was the smaller and 'less expensive' manor as Malfoy himself put it. It couldn't be that cheap I thought. We've managed to pass at least four bedrooms, some kitchens and living rooms and a room that glittered like a Gringotts vault, twice (seriously, what's the point with a vault if you are keeping jewelry at home?) before he spoke.

"Just around this corner Granger."

I followed but didn't care much for his guide, or his home while we're at it, but he was determined that we should work on this case somewhere more privet because it was quite sensitive. I wondered how bad this had gotten if Dra -- Malfoy invited me to his home.

"I bet my entire vault that _Friend_ can't top this," Malfoy said while he led me through a badly lit room, (that caused me to raise an eyebrow because I could've sworn that the things in that room was enough to get my client sent to Azkaban for a smaller part of his adulthood).

"Hurry up with the grand tour so we can start working already," I said aggravated when we entered a hallway where pale royalty were portrayed extremely majestically that led to a door with golden details.

"I don't know if this will be enough, it is the _small_ manor after all," Malfoy bragged and turned the doorknob to let me enter the room we were heading towards all this time.

My heart must've skipped a beat at the breathtaking sight.

"This is. . . amazing," I uttered in a whisper, amazed by the sight I stood in front. I couldn't stop staring at everything but oh, who could?

"I know," Malfoy said casually. "You should see the sapphire room".

"You showed me that room, twice," I whispered to him.

Malfoy seemed a bit disturbed by my lack of interest in the things that glittered. Certainly all the girls before me froze at his sapphire room and tried to get their own souvenir to reminisce the grand Malfoy tour by.

He changed tactic instead. "Did I take you to the living room?"

"Two of them, but this room. . ." I explained, still whispering of course. "These books. . . Wow," I whispered jealously because Malfoy didn't deserve these treasures but on the other hand, he's the kind of guy who would have them anyways.

"It's just a library." Malfoy said with a faked arrogance in his voice. "They're _just_ books."

Yep, he didn't deserve them but I had to remind him of his treasures. "They're _amazing_."

"Okay, so books fascinate you more than me," Malfoy said a bit uncertain and glanced at me with an odd expression on his face. His tone however changed in a second and a grin spread across his face. "That would be a first, something I won't tolerate."

I kept it professional. "My clients are top priority."

"Right, well, I arranged for you to be able to work here the last week before the trial," Malfoy said with one eyebrow raised as he observed me. Oh, Merlin, I had to look like a little child in a candy store. He, however didn't seem to care much about my silliness (or he was doing a very good job of hiding it), "there will be a payment for the extra time you put in, of course."

I gave him an assuring nod, "You'll have to fill me into the details of the events during the war from your side. We're done with the basics."

"As soon as we get seated," Malfoy said and gestured to a dark brown mahogany desk in the middle of the library that went in all different tones of brown.

I allowed myself to run a longing finger across the different bindings of the books while I admired the titles longingly. Titles like_ The Inferi Theory_ and _Ancedotes of Salazar _made me gasp but in the middle of the awfulness the rare titles like _The History of the Four_ and _The Biography of Merlin_ made me feel a wave of excitement. It was the special edition of _The Brewing of Magic_ that made me sight with joy. "If there was time. . ." I muttered silently to myself.

Somewhere behind me stood Malfoy and muttered under his breath but who cared, I was granted into this kingdom the whole week before the trial, to solve a case I found slightly unsolvable yes, and for Malfoy to make things worse. But he was becoming more and more likeable when he wasn't smirking or sneering or being himself. . .

Oh, forget Malfoy, I was surrounded with the best friends I never had; _The Twelve Uses, Mythology of The Beasts_ part one, two and three, _Accient Runes_ volumes to the roof and oh, the extended version of _Crossing Magical Lines_.

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"And being threatened to be killed made him act that way. I mean, I do not defend his behavior for all the galleons in Gringotts but think about it… he was _just_ pointing a wand at Dumbledore, he wasn't _killing_ him," I explained to Ron and took a bite of the pasta on the dinner table in Rons flat. It had to be one of the best dishes I've eaten for so long and I made a mental note in my head to ask Ron where he bought it.

"More wine?" Ron said instead of replying and poured me up a glass of red.

"And on top of that they're claiming that he fought along the Death Eaters during the final battle, who we both know isn't the truth so basically I'm defending an innocent man. They're trying to set up Malfoy, it would look good for the ministry to have as many of the Malfoys behind bars as possible," I added and took a sip of the fruity wine.

Ron merely nodded; the candles between us flickered and made his blue eyes sparkle. "That's lovely Hermione, really."

"Right? And he was underage when he was forced into becoming a Death Eaters, I think that counts for something, perhaps it reduces the prison time," I continued and thought of the underage laws. Does it really reduce it? It does, doesn't it? I should look that up, tomorrow, in the library.

"Right," Ron said a bit too stiff but woke me up from my drifting thoughts. I watched him tug his tie (tie? Why did he have a tie on) before he said,"Sounds brilliant" with a voice somewhere off in the distance.

"Do you think we have a shot at winning this?" I asked Ron, this was the crucial moment. If Ron, the brave and amazing and extremely honest man believed in me solving this case I would be able to.

"I don't know, those cases are pretty rough," Ron bit his upper lip to keep himself from saying something inappropriate. I could see the hatred towards the Malfoy bubble up to the surface. "He was a _Death Eater_ Hermione. You know, hung with the bad guys that tried to kill Harry and us, remember those times?"

"Don't be silly," I laughed, mostly to let some tension go. The image of his family, the manor and the pain they caused me flashed through me in a split second. But it was never him. "He was forced into it," I said, more to convince myself than Ron. "That's why I'm helping him."

Ron brushed his neck gently while his ears started to turn scarlet. "Yeah, about helping him..."

"About helping him what Ronald?" I threatened. "He is innocent."

"Okay, Malfoy the prick is," Ron defended. "Let's change the subject."

"Okay, but we're done working with the case tomorrow, so you know." I said casually and stared right at Ron.

We fell silent.

He had brushed up quite nicely in a loose shirt with a tie hanging around his neck I thought in our silence. The very flattering blue dress robe he was wearing brought out his eyes. It was made of some kind of material that almost glimpsed as beautifully as Rons eyes did in the dim light of the few candles between us.

"Have you read any good books lately?" Ron tried to break the silence and I admired him for that. He'd even let me bore him with my endless book despite the fact that he rarely listen to me talk about the books.

"Actually, The Biography of Merlin," I announced and took a mouthful of pasta.

Before I could tell Ron about the boring (oh, who am I kidding, the absolutely educational) life of Merlin, he spoke. "Isn't that the book you tried to find at the national library?"

"That's the one," I said astonished. "How did you remember?"

"I do listen," Ron said, smiling in a way that made the freckles on his nose disappear in the wrinkles that appeared on his nose. "Well, most of the time."

I grinned towards my adorable boyfriend. "Yeah, Malfoy had it over in his library. He gave it to me as 'a Malfoy version of a cup of tea'. Did you know that he has the most fascinating titles over there such as. . ."

"Damn it Hermione," Ron interrupted, ears flaming and eyes on fire.

He stood up and left the table before I had the time to ask him what it was that got him in that foul mood. Instead of coming back to talk about it as an ordinary and reasonable person he fled to the living room and started to destroy vases with his wand.

I sat still in front of my pasta and listened to the sound of glass being broken and Ron cursing in every language he knew curses on.

What did I do wrong?

Nothing, that's what, Ron was being the insensitive, unromantic and intolerant git he'd always been and I was not having it anymore! I stormed into the living room, wand and mind ready to curse him into the Era of Gryffindor himself.

"What is wrong with you!" I burst out when I entered the small living room.

Ron glared at me and laughed a high pitched and ear hurting laugh. "Me? What's wrong with me!"

"Yes, Ronald." I shot. "What's wrong with _you_?" I have never seen Ron this raging mad in all the years I spent on learning his features, moves and moods.

"I tried to be romantic, I got pasta, I lightened the candles that you complained about me getting but never using, I even put on one of these neck strangling things to impress you and this is new!" He yelled and made a large hand gesture at the blue dress robe he was wearing, the one that made his eyes sparkle a bit more. "You go on about Malfoy, who for the record I do not enjoy to hear about, when all I wanted to tell you was that I love you, you, you know-it-all!"

"Know-it-all?" I yelled, more mad than hurt.

"Oh, come on Hermione. I just said that I _love_ you and all you heard was that?" Ron said impatient.

Oh, he said that he _loved_ me. I glanced around to see that candles were lit in the living room and that there was a blue rose resting on the coffee table next to a box of chocolate. He did go and get a new dress robe and his tie was badly tied but it was a tie, a strangling sort and he did it for me.

"Ron. . ."

There was nothing more to do or to say than to leap across the room to kiss him with all the love I had in me and fall slowly into his. So that's what I did and I felt safe in his embrace; I knew the taste and the feel of his lips against my own, it was ordinary yet breathtaking and when we tore apart I longed for his lips to be on mine again.

"I love you, like in love with you, it's bloody hard and you're the toughest thing to be around but I love you." Ron said incoherently, muffled by my hair and smiling lips.

"I love you too, always done," I murmured. It was a truth I've always known. "It's easy though, especially after buying that pasta."

"I cooked it myself you know," Ron whispered, smiling the smile he reserved for me after a fight. The shy smile made me forget whatever we were fighting about and when he kissed me before giving me a chance to praise his cooking skills I was sure that he forgot it too.

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"So Blaise, Nott and even Harry could testify that you were in Hogwarts during the battle," I mumbled while my fingered trailed across one of the many papers I had spent day and night to write. "There is also the part of the Dark Mark."

I was in the library, only a day after telling Ron that I loved him. He'd offered me to take me out and yet I chose to spend my evening off here, sitting in front of Malfoy at the dark mahogany desk where we've spent the last couple of days. To work, mainly work.

"Malfoy? The Dark Mark."

For the first time Malfoy looked human. His eyes glanced from the pages of the old book (_Cases of the Dark_) he was reading to his concealed arm and instinctively dropped the book onto his lap to rub the arm as if the pain of it burning had been going through his body.

"They forced me you know," Malfoy murmured to his arm. "Father had to pay his debt to the Dark Lord."

"Convince them that," I told Malfoy with a voice I hoped sounded confident but I felt guilty. We've been on the winning side all this time but never thought of the losing side. I fought a war before but this time I fought it with my enemy and he needed me as much as my friends needed me in battle. "I think we're done with planning the case Malfoy, we'll win this game."

"Are you sure?" Malfoy said, not carrying much for glancing up from the thick, old book he had his nose buried in once again.

"I am," I stated confidently and stared at the fine, blond hair that was carefully put back.

"Very well," Malfoy said and looked up from the book to meet my eyes. "I guess this is it."

Shades of gray I never read about was what stared at me right now. There was only an expensive mahogany table between me and his eyes but his eyes looked so distant. Those young eyes bore uglier scars from the war than the scars we, the heroes, bore. Our eyes had lost their sparkle of the unnecessary deaths around us, our friends and people we loved but his eyes had no sparkle for reasons I didn't know. They were hurting and I saw pain, much similar to the pain I felt sometime. During a moment of weakness I felt that we understood each other, Malfoy and I, that he too knew that the scars from the years of hating each other were slowly fading away.

"I'll take you to the door," Malfoy mumbled after a while. His eyes were glossy and he never broke his eye contact.

I wavered between the thought of having him escort me out or being self-reliant before I replied, "I'll find my way out by myself, thank you."

I stood up, collected my papers and books into my brown leather bag and gave him a nod as a goodbye. As I turned around to take the few steps towards the door I shot a last glance at the books, the high shelves, the thick rug and then at the glimpsing doorknob that I was about to turn.

"Granger," Malfoy shouted from across the room. "I'll see you tomorrow."

We both understood what he meant; it was more a question than a statement. One I had to answer rightfully. Without turning around to face him I said, "We're done with the case."

"Are we?" Malfoy asked.

I thought of it. We were; there was nothing left to think about, no more details to restudy, no more laws to look up, no more interrogations about things Malfoy didn't want to share but had to and no more late nights sharing ideas and thoughts about the case, and sometimes not so much about the case. I knew him, in and out, so good that he felt like an old-time friend.

"Are we really?" Malfoy asked again from the familiar mahogany desk behind me, awaking me from my thoughts.

All the bits were in place, there was nothing more to know about the Malfoy vs. Wizard Society case but perhaps there was more to know about Malfoy.

"No," I said hastily. "I guess we're not."

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"One of the Patil sisters, almost both of them now that I think of it," Malfoy said, laughing very viciously.

What he did with those I will never share but as his cocky grin widened and his victorious eyes glittered while reminiscing his conquests you could only imagine.

"Spare me the picture Malfoy," I pleaded. This was not things you talk about in a library, especially with _him_.

"Your go, tell me, who was the best so far," Malfoy asked, grinning awfully.

"I'm not sharing _that_," I defended. "It's too private!"

"You know everything about me," Malfoy shrugged. "It seems only fair."

"I am hired to know everything about you Malfoy," I said smartly.

There was an awkward silence that reminded us both of why destiny brought us here to where we were sitting. It was not voluntarily at first, it was a case of life and death but it turned into a pleasure somehow and Malfoy seemed to be reminded about the doom only two days away.

"We should go through the papers again." Malfoy said to break the silence but he didn't make an attempt to get the papers that lay on the middle of the library where the mahogany table was yesterday.

Oh, we were sitting on the carpeted floor with our backs against a wall, appetizers between us and perhaps too much wine (explains the explicit conversation, doesn't it?). Don't ask where the furniture went, Malfoys said something about sterilizing the furniture's, he had suggested another room but I liked it here and I didn't mind sitting so close to him that our arms _almost_ brushed when we stretched for our wineglasses.

"Fine," I stared at him, defeated by pity and the awkward silence. "Ron."

"Oh, the other half of the heroic package?" Malfoy said slowly and then broke into an even more victorious grin. "Figures."

"Ron happens to be a very good lover Malfoy," I assured him.

"Compared to whom I might ask," Malfoy said and the smirk, the obnoxious smirk spreading across his pale skin scared and made my blood boil.

"Shut up," I said and nudged his arm.

I think we both stopped for a second because I touched Malfoy, not slapping him but actually touched him, voluntarily.

And the interesting part?  
He nudged me back while asking if Ron was as good at locating as he was with the Ford Angelina.

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I snuck into Rons bedroom as quietly as I managed. It had been a late night, Malfoy had insisted on relooking the case one last time and I had to agree. It ended up with Malfoy reciting things out of books and me guessing who wrote those words. I was tired and I just wanted Ron's body heat warming me without waking him up, I was yearning for closeness, slim pale fingers and those tiny see-through strays of hair to brush against my skin instead of. . .

I shook out of it and changed rather quickly to the pajamas I had at Ron's and snuck under the covers to be close to him, slowly kissing his neck and back to let him know that I was close felt so familiar and safe.

"Where you been?" Ron asked rather hoarsely with his eyes shut.

Over at Malfoys. "Over at Mum and Dads."

"Until this hour?" Ron said, mostly yawning instead of forming words. "I tried to wait up."

"Yeah, they got a new drill they wanted to test," I lied. "I have a wand to fix my teeth again, muggle things you know."

"Okay, you should get some sleep now, it's a big day for you tomorrow," Ron whispered, turned around and gave me a sloppy kiss on the nose instead of the lips. "Night."

I looked at the klutz with the fire red hair a pillow away. His limbs were tangled in a mess of sheets and linen and his eyes were shut in a calm sort of way.

"I love you," I whispered to him, partly appreciative and partly guilty to a Ron who already snored.

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"This is it," I said to my _client_ who wore a black dress robe and an even darker expression. We were waiting for our doom in a small preparation room in silence.

"What if I lose?" Malfoy demanded, I could hear the fear in his voice. "Azkaban would take a toll on this handsome face."

"Are you trying to make this okay by telling jokes?" I asked.

"Got any better ideas?" Malfoy snapped and glared angrily at me first but somehow looked so weak and helpless. His tone was turning soft and almost pleading now, "Your ideas have been proven to be good so far so if you do have any. . ."

The ice cold guard was down I realized when I watched his Adams apple go up and down every time he swallowed the tension in the room. For the fourth time this small infinity we were in the preparation room he straightened his unwrinkled suit. I looked at my client, no, he was Malfoy and realized that he was among us deathly persons. He needed someone.

I approached him, whispering 'this is stupid' repetitively in my head as I eliminated the distance between us but when I reached him I saw him look at me longingly. Like he'd been waiting for me do to _something_. It was a leap of faith that I took when I opened my arms and clung onto him, expecting anything but the arms he shyly placed around my waist.

"Granger," Malfoy said muffled by my hair. "Tell me that I'm winning the game."

Muffled I replied. "_We_ are winning this game."

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**3 to go,** prompts such as _Music, Just Another Lie_ and _Not Alone_ could make this interesting.  
As always, reviews are really helpful and supportive so don't hesitate.

Lumos Maximum


	3. Music

**A/N: **Okay, so this fic is all about dialogue, Draco and dreaminess lol.  
3/5 and I say, as usual, enjoy!

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Chapter three:  
**Music**  
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"This case has been sensitive but if Harry Potter himself testifies for the defendant. . . " the judge said, addressing the filled courtroom and cleared his throat.

His efforts echoed in the silence of the courtroom. I saw Harry across the room between Zabini and Nott, rubbing a hand over his scar habitually and it didn't sooth me a bit. He looked worried at Malfoy that sat next to me, straight backed and stiff with focused eyes on the judge.

". . . There'll be papers sent after work hours tomorrow," the judge continued and narrowed in on me. "It's the lawyer's job to have the sentence confirmed by the defendant as you might know lawyer Granger."

"Certainly Judge," I answered with an unsteady voice. My eyes found Ron as quickly as they always did when I needed sanctuary from anything that sent chills down my spine, this time the judges disliking gaze. Instead of finding Ron's familiar blues with comfort and pride I saw him stare with narrowed eyes at Malfoy, hatred and frustration glimpsing between the sincere worry.

"By the rules of Merlin and Agrippa and the power from the Magic of Ministry I sentence you Draco Malfoy. . ."

Every word after this fell into the haze of my mind really, I was feeling the rush of seeing justice being served and fright of losing this case and sending an innocent man to the Wizarding hell. My yearning hand sought out Malfoys under the table we shared, not knowing more than that I needed the touch. His not cold, but sweaty and moist palm grabbed my trailing fingers finally, stilling my hunger and soothing me. I was sure that nobody could see our linked hands under the table or the look Malfoy gave me but surely the whole court room could _feel_ the effect of his eyes. The indefinable look that was so sharp and freezing, warming and hypnotizing paralyzed me, if only for a second, and I was sure that he could alter the weather with the energy he radiated.

". . . almost free," the judges floating voice said somewhere over my head.

His hand squeezed and I realized that, that, right there was exactly how I felt with Ron's narrowed eyes towards my direction and Malfoys hand wrapped around mine. _Almost_ free.

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"I mess these things up okay!"

That was the annoying sound of Ron Weasley in my apartment, fighting me as usual.

"Yeah, Ron. You do!" I shrieked. I was going mad because Ron Weasley had been ruining the day and now the evening by Aparating without any thoughts of apologizing for his behavior previously that day.

"Hermione," Ron started, his tone was dangerous when he spoke my name. "Malfoy deserved whatever I did!"

I didn't agree, frankly I was seconds away from placing a wand less 'Silencio' to be freed from his explanations. "You don't _hex_ somebody who probably had the worst day of their life."

"Why was _he_ staring at you like that then, in the court room, in the halls, even when you said your goodbyes?" Ron's ears were flaming and his fists were clenching. "The look, Hermione. . .I saw it! He _likes_ you!"

"Likes me?" Oh, did he really? No! No. . . "He doesn't _like_ me!"

"Oh, come on. I saw you two!" Ron voice was turning from dangerous to triumphant now, he had a secret. "I saw him grabbing your hand under the table and you didn't pull away. You just let him hold you."

"It was just . . ." But I couldn't reply, that moment of intimately we shared. No, scratch that, the moment of need we shared was in a sort of haze that I thought was shared only by us. I buried my head in my hands.

"And you wondered why I cursed him Hermione," Ron sighted, defeated by the lack of words from my part. I glanced from between my fingers that tried to memorize the feel of Malfoy, right into Ron's crystal blues, who looked older than I ever seen them. "Hermione, maybe we should leave each other alone."

"Ron," I stopped midsentence and took a step towards him. He was being so stupid. "Why do you always assume that I don't love you?"

Ron's _everything_ turned gloomy. "Because you deserve something better, you've always done. Malfoy will never be better but he's richer and he has a library and. . ."

"I deserve you," I told him and unwillingly the stupid tears started to burn behind my eyelids.

"Well," and this time Ron paused only to slowly crush every little fraction of the heart I've glued together an endless amount of times with his blue, calm eyes. "Then, perhaps, I deserve less than you."

"Ron, please." I pleaded but for what I don't know.

Instead of replying me Ron stepped across the room to kiss me goodbye. Our lips locked onto each other and the kiss was bittersweet. The sound of Ron's lips meeting mine was the only sound in my living room during a small infinity (in which tears prickled hot behind my eyelids, fighting a battle against my mind).

We broke apart, he mumbled 'I'll see you', and summoned the strays of life he'd been spreading all over my apartment with a quick 'Accio' left with a crack!

I listened to the silence before it all sunk in, he was gone, again, and all he left behind him was a sound of something fragile shattering somewhere in my empty living room.

I think he broke my glued heart.

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"I wont cry, I wont cry, I will never cry." I paused while rocking my body back and forth. "Ron left me and I will not cry." It was not safe to cry here, 7 A.M in the bed Ron and I used to share.

"I won't cry alone like this," I repeated. And I didn't cry.

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"Draco."

I banged the door as hard I could, It was 2. A.M the day after the day 'Ron said goodbye' and how ironic, he was my hazard by day and I was his by night.

"Draco, I know you're there," I yelled, still banging like mad in the middle of the night.

"Please," I said, not knowing where the pleading or the first name basis came from. "Open the door."

I heard multiplied locks and mumbles of charms, so many locks clicked and many charms were mumbled at the other side of the door that I had to rethink my actions. How foolish, yet it seemed so reasonable.

"Granger?" Draco said, standing in nothing but his underwear and messier hair than even the due Harry sported. I stood, slightly curious of the anatomy of him and what caused his hair to stand like that. "What are you doing here?" Draco tried, as obnoxious as always yet with a hidden tenderness.

"Fine," I said, turning around dramatically to leave.

"Granger!" Draco yelled after me as I walked away, "Hermione!"

The shock of hearing my name made me go very lightheaded and confused but it didn't make me stop. I, Hermione Granger do not take stuck up, annoying and quite frankly unappreciative boys seriously.

"Hermione!" Draco yelled and grabbed my arm so that I could feel his polished nails dig into my skin. "What makes me get a house call from my lawyer?"

"This," I said coldly and dragged away from his grip to hand him the papers that came earlier that night when I was sitting shamefully in my pyjamas with teary muggle movies and ice cream.

His eyes scan quickly through while they slowly widened. They looked quite bright now, even in the darkness and the small rays of light from the enchanted fireflies further away in the garden. "I approve, I am free."

"Congratulations," I said stiffly.

"I am free, I did – We," Malfoy looked through the letter again to make sure it wasn't a bad joke. "You, Lawyer Granger did it."

It must've hurt his ego rather badly to admit it so I avoided to rub more salt into the wound. "You were innocent."

"Doesn't matter, I am Draco Malfoy, I was guilty until proven innocent" Malfoy said astonished. I noted that he was still in his underwear but now barefoot in the wet grass. The small sources of light reflected onto his bare chest, creating dots of yellow and white.

"Congratulations," I repeated and turned to leave him this instance because his bliss was making me feel nausea.

"Wait, what's wrong?" Draco demanded. "We won the game, is over."

"I-I" I started. How I hated to be this unbalanced version of myself but Ron had that effect on me and Malfoy stood in his underwear and it was two A.M and I had that thing, and Malfoy and Ron. . . "I-I-I" I stuttered.

He got closer now. And I wanted to him to get even more closer. And he placed to hands on my arms and I didn't mind. At all.

It was then, between enchanted fireflies and darkness that I, Hermione Granger, broke down in the stiff arms of the evil little innocent (and almost bare) Draco Malfoy. "Because, I think I-I lost my game."

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Since Ron dumped me, as Draco so kindly put it, I found myself knocking on Dracos door instead of Harry's (and Ginny's) and Draco was never late to unlock the door. We fell into that pattern, I knocked and he let me in. No questions asked. He guided me through the multiplied rooms in his small mansion while we shared pleasantries like 'how was your day' and 'I like that painting' before we reached the library. It was in the library, where there was no furniture, where books were stacked to the roof against every wall besides the one right under the window, where we sat on cushions on the floor, it was there we became nothing more than Draco and Hermione.

We spent many nights like this, almost brushing arms and sharing more than pleasantries but our words echoed in the library this particular evening so we whispered them. Perhaps that's why Malfoy sat so close to me this with a book in his lap, a book I brought him as a gift and read bits from it for me to listen too.

"Listen to this tackiness said by Nicholas Flamel, 'If you can't speak the language of love, create a melody. Music is what feelings sound like, and kisses should too.'" Draco snorted and turned the page, the motion he did made his body switch against my bare arm. "Why do I doubt good old, greedy Flamel?"

"Oh, Draco" I said, stealing the book from his grip when he referred to Flamel as greedy. "I think that was pretty wise, Nicholas had time to reflect on that, you know."

"He means that all men go around sounding like melodies, that has to be really annoying," Draco said baffled.

"You sound like nonsense," I told Draco. "Men talk a lot of nonsense too."

"Like good old, greedy Flamel. Kisses never sound anything but lips and the occasional tongue." Draco snickered.

I never bothered to reply to that. My thoughts wondered off to the way Ron used to make me feel instead.

"Thinking of Ginger again?" Draco said, aggravated, and I felt his hear turning sideways to face me and his eyes boring into my skull.

Yes. "No!"

I faced his challenging eyes and became shocked when I was so close to his lips that I could feel the warmth of his quickening breaths and the smell of wine escaping up my nostrils.

"You probably heard Scottish bagpipes playing when you kissed him the first time," Draco mocked but there was anger in his murmur.

"I didn't," I confessed more to myself than to Draco who had his eyes locked at me. "There was. . . nothing."

Draco looked sympathetic, although I was sure he pretended. "He had to be really bad then."

Our hands found their way to each other and the toxic smell of Draco, only inches away from kissing me was unpredictably tempting. We shared a silence, in which our fingers were locked, arms were pressed and eyes were reading every piece of desire there was left in a room that suddenly felt out of air.

"Ron wasn't bad. . ." I assured him after a while in a whisper but the truth was that there was no music, there had never been, no violins or even pianos.

Not even a bagpipe.

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"Hermione, I'll see you tomorrow."

It was Dracos voice that spoke when I was about to turn around to leave the small mansion.

I smiled, it was more a question than a statement. "Yes, and the day after that and the day after that."

"Good," Draco said, slightly relieved. "What would the library be without someone actually reading the books?"

I chuckled. "Is that why you insist on having me here, _Malfoy_?"

"No, but you couldn't handle the truth. Apparate safe, Hermione." Malfoy murmured and eliminated the nonexistent distance between us to give me a tender kiss on the cheek.

Flushed I stared at him, who stood as chocked as me by his sudden display of affection. He suddenly found his shirtsleeves _very_ interesting.

"Goodbye," I murmured and kissed him on the cheek to spare us the embarrassment, or perhaps see if I could spread the same kind of redness across his pale face. It has to be noted that I could.

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Despite the awkwardness from yesterday I found myself knocking on his door, as promised and he let me in. No questions asked. We managed to keep it to ourselves really, him kissing me and me kissing him back but when he yawned for the twentieth time that night I insisted on going home. He proposed a minute of 'resting our eyes' instead, something telling me that he wasn't ready to say goodbyes, not yet.

That's why I was watching fine, blond strays of hair break free from his stiff hair due, only to fall into his shut eyes. His chest moved slowly for every deep breath he took. I leaned in to inhale the scent of Draco and admire the freckle less skin. I reached out to touch his cheek, flushed and silky looking in the light of the few floating candles in the library but hesitated. He's not mine to have so my eyes fell onto his lips instead, slightly parted and slowly drying up by the deep breaths. I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if I leaned in to. . . remoisten them. Would he kick me out? I could just 'Oblivate' him in worst case scenario or would he kiss me back if anything. Would I want him to? Oh, Merlin I'm falling in love and it is making me . . .

"Hermione, I know you like me," Draco mumbled, eyes shut and his head pressed against the wall behind him where he sat.

I withdraw my whole body so forcefully that I hit the bookshelf next to us, my cheeks were burning. "I do not."

"It's okay," Draco mumbled, unfazed by me almost knocking down a thousand books. "I like you too."

And there were no more words to share.

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"And this is the ballroom _Hermione_," Draco told me with a great deal of emphasis on my name. He did a large hand gesture when I entered the room. The room was heavily decorated with smirk details that went in all different golds; light fabric gold, galleon gold, magical gold, dark gold, jewelry gold. . . You get the picture.

"Oh, _Draco_ is it here you practice dancing?" I asked with the same kind emphasis on his first name and listened to his echoing steps against the white stone floor.

"No," Draco shrugged. "I don't listen to music much."

"You don't? Why not?" I asked, while admiring the ballroom I was standing in and the man that placed a hand on my shoulder to twirl me around.

"Simple," and this was one of the few questions Draco hesitated before replying. "Music is what feelings sound like."

"So you're quoting Flamel finally." I teased but I was only thinking of the hand Draco had on my shoulder and the exclusive taste of wine in my mouth.

"He was an interesting read." Draco confessed and took a step closer so I could smell the chocolate pudding he'd been eating.

"I figured that he would've been." I said and changed the subject completely. "I can't dance."

"I'll teach you." Draco said, a bit absent and placed both his hands on my hips. I knew the theory behind dancing and there was nothing about being so close to each other.

Instead of correcting him, like my natural urges encouraged me to do, I murmured, "There's no music."

Draco leaned in towards and pressed me so close to him that I could feel his often slow heart race against my body. "There will be."

His forbidden lips met mine, shyly at first and I knew that I was obliged to withdraw myself from him. Instead I heard strings of violins playing when his lips locked onto mine impatiently. His tongue traced slowly across my lips and teeth, slowly memorizing every part of me as the keys of a distant piano echoed in the ballroom we stood in. He was kissing me like it was the first and the last kiss he was ever going to get and I clutched onto him, needing more than I was ever given. Slowly, unwillingly I pulled away from his soft lips that mixed so perfectly with mine.

"We're spinning Draco," I murmured with my eyes closed.

"We're perfectly still," Draco replied and cupped my face in his hands to kiss me again, this time aggressively to the sound of an orchestra.

Our tongues crashed hungrily in each other's mouths, this time not carrying about the do and don'ts and I realized somewhere between the flutes and harps what we were doing in this silent ballroom.

We were making music.

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**A/N:** Two left and let me just say that this was a tricky prompt to use lol, I dunno if this turned out as good I expected it be but hopefully it was enjoyable.


	4. Just Another Lie

Chapter four:  
**Just Another Lie**

**.**

"You. . ." I said with numbed lips. We took a pause to gasp for air and I tried to figure out why there were fireworks going off in my head.

"You?" Draco copied, breathless. His hand stroke my cheek carefully and I could feel his eyes trying to lure out the words out of me.

"You kissed me," I acknowledged rather matter-of-factly and met his forehead with my own but I didn't dare to meet his gaze.

"I did no such thing," Draco lied softly and drew himself even closer to me so I could feel and sense the waves of heat and perfume and _Draco_.

"Yes, you did, and you're about to kiss me again, aren't you?" I murmured with eyes shut. We were so close that every word I pronounced brushed against his lips.

I felt his lips form a small, cautious smile back as a reply. "No, I'm not."

Oh, but he _did_ kiss me.

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"Scourgify!" I demanded with my wand pointed at my open mouth. The force of the spell threw me back a little in my bathroom and the result was soap and bubbles escaping between every small cough I let out.

I was home after kissing Malfoy. Draco _Malfoy_. . .

"Scourgify totalus!"I demanded louder because the violent rinsing before wasn't painful enough or effective. My teeth were rinsed so thoroughly that my parents would've been proud but I could still taste him.

I'd always known that the taste of sin was sugary sweet.

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There were green, red, blue and yellow dresses all over my bedroom floor. I owned them all, tried them all and suddenly hated them all because none of them made me feel pretty. I had been twirling in a white cotton dress with laced straps for twenty minutes now but it was loose in all the wrong places and my hair was going messier for every turn I did. I looked awful, awful and there was only thirty minutes before I had to arrive to the manor to discuss the _events _that occurred last night.

I didn't know why I cared about what I was wearing by the way; it was not like I tried to make him fall head over heels or something. I was going to tell him that this is silly, that we were not going to happen again any day soon and especially that there was no chance on magic that we were going to be anything ever again. Oh, and if it happened again, only if, I would make it clear that we were _just_ and simply kissing. Nothing more, nothing less, just . . . kissing.

I slipped in striking black and tied the hair in a tight knot. The plan was to be arriving as Death and kill all his expectations so I Aparated to the manor, as a choir really and knocked on the door.

I rehearsed my speech in my head while the many locks were being unlocked by Draco. How could _anything_ go wrong with 'Draco, we can't start getting feelings because it's complicated and I'm not saying that you are getting feelings because I am certainly not getting any but if you were you better get rid of them. In theory we wouldn't be able to be together, we aren't exactly what you would've called the ideal couple now, are we?'. I couldn't go wrong but as the door flung open I knew that I might have a bullet proof plan to handle this but Draco sure didn't.

"At last," Draco said with a welcome-to-my-house-_mistress_ smirk. "You look very, _appetizing_ today."

I glared at him eyeing me with a triumphant smirk that quickly transformed to a confused, flushed and hurt face as it should've.

Oh, why should Malfoy look confused, flushed and hurt you might wonder?

Well, I slapped him, hard, because _nobody_ looks or talks to Hermione Granger like that.

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We used PM's in the Ministry; it was less messy when things came around. I was quite fond of the occasional PM that stuck around the elevators, lost and confused of its function. They were easy to send back to the sender (with a note saying that they should practice their charms more of course.) The owls were also a messenger or more an animal I was quite fond of, especially their ability to be so loyal to the sender of the mail and their amazing talent of finding a recipient anywhere. They were amazing, owls, messier than PMs, yes, but still. Now, that being said, imagine the chock I was in when I found a mess in my work room caused by a big, black magical hawk that sat on top of my bookshelf (who I might add wasn't equipped to hold a big, black magical hawk). Imagined it? Good, I glared, glared being the key at the big, no, _huge_ animal with the smallest of notes between its tight, yellow beak.

I could only guess on one person who were dumb enough to pull of that kind of grand gesture in a ministry workspace and as I charmed the letter down and opened it I knew that my guess was accurate, as always.

_ Hermione, _

_We have matters to attend to and discuss.  
I'll see you tomorrow._

_Draco_

"I will not," I burst, still remembering the trespassing of my dignity from three days ago. It didn't take me longer than five seconds to tear the small note apart and trash it. I felt satisfied with my days work until I heard the hawks beak snap behind me and wings flutter intensely. The sound of my beloved bookshelf breaking and the sound of books falling to the ground were like nails to a blackboard.

"Bloody Malfoy," I cursed. "Bloody stupid hawk."

_Draco,_

_We sure have. Tomorrow then._

_Hermione_

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"You and your stupid hawk destroyed office furniture," I said as soon as Draco opened the door at 11 P.M dressed in a simple T-shirt and trousers for a change.

Draco smiled lazily, like he was expecting these accusations. "I get that a lot."

"You should get a smaller hawk then," I suggested harshly.

"The first complainer," Draco said with the bored tone I hated. "So why are you here, besides receiving a . . . _confession of stupidity_ for my early behavior?"

"Because I need my bookshelf repaired," I explained but I thought '_because you asked me to nitwit!_'.

"But there had to be more," Draco said, rather cockily according to me. "Do you want to discuss your feelings?"

"Don't flatter yourself, besides; it's not me feeling things. It's you. You're the one that kissed me," I snapped and waited for a reply. Secretly I waited for him to say, yes, I do feel something for you so I could be the stronger one. I wanted to crush him back.

Draco looked cold instead. "To quote someone thick, don't flatter yourself."

There was a pause where we both stared at each other, playing a mind game we invented.

"Right, thank you for your lack of apologies, now when that's been taken care of I'll let you go on with your life then," I said to break the silence, slightly hurt and straightened my skirt. I stretched out my hand to shake his goodbye, _very_ professional. "Adieu."

His eyebrow rose and he took a moment to observe me and my stretched out hand with curious eyes. I could've simply turned around and Apparate right on the spot and never return but something kept me glued to the spot where I stood. I could see his eyes calculating what to do instead of what to say before he chose to act and I was interested to see what he thought was a proper to do.

"_Adieu_," Draco mocked and grabbed my hand to shake it and we stood there shaking. And I felt him tug on my arm so I took a step closer, he copied my movement and I copied and he . . . and all the sudden we were so close that I was begging him to kiss me in my head with a voice that sounded so needing and desperate.

He didn't, he teased me instead by shaking my hand properly while breathing onto my lips so I leaned in and stole that self-righteous smirk from his lips.

Everything from there was unimaginable.

He kissed me carefully while staggering with me across the entrance and up for the long stairway. His hands were holding me as carefully as a vase of glass in a hurricane, like I was going to brake in his hands. That's why I kissed him harder when we reached a detailed door that led into one of the many bathroom doors; I was pressing his body against a doorknob, a statue and armour but he didn't mind between the small gasps he took. He kissed me a million times when I was pushed up against different paintings on the hallway walls, our hands and legs twitching with desire and impatience. I was losing balance and felt like dying by the torturous paste of his hands and lips, yet I felt alive every time I controlled the situation and shivered at his panting in my ear.

I pushed him upon a door I recognized as his bedroom door from the guide he took me on the first time I was here. My heart raced and every heartbeat thumped loudly against my ribs but I couldn't let him do these things to me without asking, or assuming I should say. "You're using me," I stated between quick, sharp breaths.

"I am," Draco confessed, ice cold, and spun me around to press me onto the bedroom door instead to let his kisses wonder down my neck fierce fully.

"You're lying," I challenged between control and gasps, determent to hold in the sounds of pleasure he caused.

Dracos lips created a path of kisses from my lower neck to my ear before he whispered, "No, but does it matter?"

"It does," I managed to say before I had to let a small moan escape from my lips. "We're just being friendly and listen _Malfoy_. . ."

He interrupted me by placing a slim finger across my lips so determined that I felt fire rushing through me. His last name worked like a trigger as he lifted me up higher, still pressed at the bedroom door and let his hands unbutton my shirt, the hormones flooding all his senses made his tone go deeper.

"It's too late now, _Granger_."

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_Hermione, _

_I'll see you tomorrow, dinner here.  
No, nothing special. _

_Draco _

I was on ecstasy from last night, high on life and as a result from too little sleep I couldn't help but clutch the letter and laugh. Don't judge me; I might've had a . . . exceptional night. And, to add on the recent pleasantries, that stupid black hawk wasn't there to demolish anything of importance. Things were . . . appropriate. Therefore I chose to reply, because I have manners of course and to be polite. I dipped my quill into the ink to scribble together a quick note (a note I've taken a lot of thought to formulate in my head before actually writing it) over some fresh parchment. Lies always looked good on fresh parchment.

_Draco, _

_Reasonable, see you at 11 P.M.  
No strings attached._

_Hermione_

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"You're using me," I said, breathless as usual by his kisses. We were groping each other in an uncivil manor outside his bedroom door and I had to break our kiss to be sure that he was _just_ using me. I needed to know that he wasn't falling. That I wasn't falling even more.

"I am," Draco promised, awaking me slightly and drew my head closer to kiss me with one hand while he turned the doorknob with the other one.

It was when he brought me into his rose filled and candlelit bedroom, kissing me with tenderness and caressing every little inch of me that I knew that he lied to me straight up, but as he proceeded to kiss me on top of his perfectly made bed I couldn't care less.

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2 A.M, the day after the dreamy night and my door knocked, it could only be Draco.

"Wait a minute," I yelled and straightened out everything from skirt to hair, the ladder without any visible result. I wavered between grabbing a book and pretend to read, write on papers and look very busy or sitting with my arms crossed until I decided to go for the more, courageous choice.

"Come in," I said with one finger trailing up and down from my collar to the first hole on my almost unbuttoned shirt (very ugly trick played by me but I knew Draco liked the laced blue one.).

"Hey Hermione, how are you holding up?" was the first thing Ronald Weasley said before his eyes fell out of his skull. I shrieked and he was going red and papers flew down from the desk and in an attempt to flee the scene Ron managed to crash into a chair, making a dive across the room and hit the bookshelf that Draco had repaired.

"Ron!" I burst because while buttoning up a shirt quicker than anyone should've. "Are you okay?"

"Merlins saggy ones!" Ron burst and started to laugh from his defeated state on the floor. "I have to hand it to you, you made me fall."

I knew the blush started to creep out. Ron had that effect on me. "Oh, shut it Ron."

He managed to get up on two feet and brushed off carefully before asking in rage, "Who were you expecting?"

"No one," I lied. "I wasn't aware, that's all."

"So you go around in the office like that?" Ron asked as calmly as he managed but I could hear his voice (and his body) lose its self-control. "It suits you," He added sarcastically.

"It was a slip up," I said coolly.

Instead of answering Ron started to look at anything else in the office besides me, including a blue rose I charmed to stay alive (almost) forever. He approached it and touched it, fascinated and a bit flushed when I chose to speak.

"About that flower, I could take it down," I said, realizing that it was the same rose Ron gave me when he said 'I love you' for the first time.

"Don't," Ron interrupted and took the rose from its vase and walked towards me. "I still mean it, you know," he explained as he handed the rose to me.

I knew he did, I did too but I couldn't reply, not with words anyway so I nodded.

"Always have you know," Ron said and fell silent. I observed him quietly while fingering my blue, undying, blue Ron, no rose and then he lifted my chin up and thought of kissing me.

"Ron. . ." I said, wavering between yelling 'stop' or 'kiss me'.

"Tell me this," Ron murmured. "Do you still love me?"

I did love him but I choked on the words and my body froze at the word love so instead of replying I stared at him, trying to send him the message telepathically.

"I better go, " Ron murmured and left me with nothing but a soft kiss on the cheek and a blue rose that was destined to live for an eternity.

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"This won't work," was my greeting when I arrived to the manor, the evening after rose pedals and candles. I am a woman, worrying about a guy that takes the time of spreading pedals perfectly over a bed, spreding kisses perfectly over. . . No, this wasn't going to work. "You and me, _this_, won't work."

"Really, well, hi, my day was wonderful today too! Why, yes, I would like a kiss before getting my head chopped off," Draco said with a slightly aggravated tone.

"This is important," I burst. The confusion of emotions after Rons appearance in my office earlier this day made me tense. "Tell me that you don't care." I demanded. "Tell me that this is a game you're playing with me."

"Whatever holds up in court Lawyer Granger," Draco said and shot me a winning smile. Keyword being smile.

I was satisfied by his response, there was nothing between us and he was just in for the same reasons as I was. Truth be told, I didn't even know my motives but instead of dealing with my own dilemmas I tried to stare him out.

He had a mischievous grin across his face that could make George rethink his own. "What are _you_ smiling about?"

"If this is the last day I'll be granted the pleasure of meeting you," He paused for emphasis after the word pleasure, much to my annoyance. "I'd like to have a memory to remember you by."

I snorted but he laughed, confusingly enough and lifted me up while I did an awful mix of ranting and giggling. While sweeping me off my feet and spinning me in the hallway he whispered, "So you know, you're radiating."

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I was at Harrys and Ginnys. Fortunally Ginny went shopping with little James Sirius so that left me, Harry and two cups of (badly made) tea. That, and my problems.

"How's Ron holding up?" I asked Harry. "He visited my by the office the other day."

The war somehow made my best friend so peaceful and content with everything. "Ron's living."

"Are you sure?" I asked, jealous of Ron because he was living when I felt like dying. The only time I could feel somewhat happy was when Draco was remarking something silly in a book we discussed or when he did that sound of a broom swishing through the air. Or when he was opening the door for me to every room we were about to enter and when he let me chose what to eat for the dinners we started to share almost every day. Here was Ron, living, when I wasn't.

"Hermione," Harry said, smiling. "You disappeared, are you getting enough sleep?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," I said, confused over where my thoughts wondered. "I better be going, I have things to do," I added when I saw the clock on the wall, I was already ten minutes late to dinner with Draco and he had promised me a new kind of way of eating treacle tart as desert.

"Work related?" Harry asked, still smiling.

"Yes, its getting heavy over at the office," I lied and stood up. I hate lying to Harry, it felt awful but lately that was all I was doing and for whom and why you already know.

"I see," Harry managed to say effortlessly although I knew he saw right through me.

He stood up to give me a hug as a goodbye but in the middle of the hug he murmured something vague, "Ron loves you, you know, they all do."

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"Are you awake Hermione?" I heard Draco whisper; rather anguish when I didn't offer a reply. I kept my place next to him on the retailed sheets without as much as a sharp inhale. I longed for the treacle tart tasking kisses he gave me all night but I wondered why he wanted to start a conversation when it was so late that the stars were twinkling high on the pitch black sky. Therefore I kept quiet.

"You're not pretend sleeping or something, are you?" Draco asked. Obviously I was but I wasn't going to let _him_ know that. "If, and if you are asleep you wouldn't mind me saying that I am going to burn down the library to make room for more sapphires."

He paused. My heart wrenched at his words and I seriously thought of turning around and sucker punch him and leave his soft sheets to go back to my stiffer, badly made ones. But his bed was perfectly made, and he was in it, and I knew by know that I liked it. My fists clenched instead.

"The Hermione, the awake Hermione I know, got to know, would slap me for saying something that stupid," Draco said and judging by his tone smiling. "Again."

I snorted in my mind.

"The point of saying this to _anyone_, nevertheless a sleeping one I won't know but. . . " Draco wavered. "I think, no I know, I assume that. . . "

He did a pause and I felt his body shift behind my back to snuggle me from behind. His soft skin was brushing against my bare one and the familiarity of that was soothing. I felt so comfortable in his touch, I knew that this was a game to him as he told me from the start, as I forced him to tell me but I couldn't help but feel alive. There were tunes of life even in this charade we played, even in this silence.

"We crossed lines, you crossed laws," Draco whispered, changing the direction of his speech and I could feel his warm tickling breath against my neck. "I'll cross love."

He paused again and I was all ears.

"I love you," I heard Draco murmur instead after a long silence somewhere above my head as he stroke my bare skin, leaving traces of Goosebumps where his fingers trailed.

I knew that this was probably just another lie in these lies we were tangled up in but I couldn't help but to think it anyways, _I love you too_.

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**A/N:** Okay, Last prompt: Not Alone. AND I won't be able to use a computer for a week because of a live-without-computer-tv-cellphone-and-ipod project I'm hosting at school.  
SO attack my e-mail with reviews and hellos so I'll get happy when I come back! Even you who usually don't review, say hello and tell me how has _Crossing Lines, Laws and Love _been so far!

much love,

_Luumooss M_


	5. Not Alone

**SwedishA/N:** So, here we are. **Thank you reviewers, you're so supportive!** And forgive me Dramione shippers for I have sinned, there are no Yule Balls or Marriage Laws here. It's just me, crossing the lines, laws, love and of course fanon. This chapter was tricky for me to produce with all the things happening around me, I'm not quite satisfied yet but do review and give me feedback!

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Chapter five:  
**Not Alone**  
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I had this wonderful dream. I was a princess running around in a manor, dressed in a white, light summer dress with flowers in my hair. Laughing and dancing between amours and portraits of pale royalty carelessly, almost floating made me feel bliss. I was beautiful, or so I was told by the voice behind me. _You glow like a veela. You're as fascinating as the sun._ I twirled around to face the man who told me these things. There was the permanent person in my most secret dreams, glowing somewhere in the dark and I watched him approach me, dressed in white and small strays of hair falling into his deep grays. _You're loved. You're adored._

"It's morning," a familiar voice behind me growled. I must've groaned because the growl turned into a silky smooth tone. "You got to get up; you have that thing you talked about today."

I stopped twirling and dancing in my dream but the keys of the piano didn't stop and neither did he. He walked towards me calmly and I knew this part of this dream, I've dreamed this dream since he captured me in the library. _You're not alone. You'll never be._ I knew that he was going to approach me slowly, with a murderous pace and I was going to stand there with my summer dress floating just waiting for him to come close enough.

"Hermione," the voice called, silky smooth and purring chanted somewhere in reality.

_There are a thousand flowers in your hair. _He was inches away from me now, plucking flowers from my hair and handing me them one by one until he placed the last one, a white one, on his lips, kissing it softly and placed it behind my ear. There were so many flowers and there was so little time for him because I was brutally awoken. _Stay here because_ _all I want is to dance with you. _I nodded and handed him my hand. He grabbed it carefully and spun me in the manor to a melody that seemed to be created as time went. _Hermione._ I asked him if we could stay here forever because we were together here and not alone._ Hermione, Hermione._ His voice chanting my name like that wasn't a part of my regular dream but I couldn't care less because he accepted my offer to stay forever and dipped me, making my flower drop to the floor and I knew that when he drew me up he was going to kiss me._ Hermione, Hermione, Hermione._

"Let me finish my dream, Ron!" I yelled in the dark, sleep drunken and mad because I missed out on the best part.

I felt movement behind me and a lot of activity under the sheets and finally two feet touched the stone floor, ready to leave the room. The same voice, silky smooth and purring, just like in my most sacred and hidden dreams spoke.

"Go back to the Weasel in your dreams, Granger," he said, with coldness and ice that didn't belong there or was long forgotten. "_This_ is not real."

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"I'm sorry for yesterday."

"Save it."

"It's a habit."

"I'm sure it is."

"Are you going to be angry for all eternity?"

"I don't even care, Hermione."

"I'm sorry."

"Save your breath."

Draco was blank, cold and all the adjectives of heatless that there is but who could blame him? He might've thought that I fantasized about Ron every time I kissed him (that only happened once) but the truth looked different. I've heard him whisper those words to me a couple of night ago, _I love you. I love you,_ and they stayed in my head. _I love you too_, I murmured in my dreams but I couldn't tell _him_ that. It took me over eight years to say it to Ron and here he was, storming into my life in fancy dress robes, twisted smiles and dreamlike kisses, begging me to spill my heart out but I couldn't.

"If you only knew, Draco," I muttered and let my fingers trail across the different books in the library where he had all of our more serious talks. Despite the location I wasn't ready to share my heart or my thoughts, not yet.

"Knew what, Hermione?" Draco asked somewhere across the room, tone chilly. "This _thing_ we started, it's not everything there is to consider."

"Consider?" I snapped but I couldn't bear looking at him. "I'm not some kind of business proposal."

"Really? How do _you_ think being with you makes me look? " Draco retorted, mocking my reasoning with a coldness that sent chills through my body. "You're a lawyer, Potters best friend, a defeater of the Dark Lord and on top of that a mu –"

"Don't – "I interrupted before he could call me the M word. "Don't even say what you were thinking. I thought you were different but you're just like _them_."

I could feel Draco glaring at me during a painful pause.

"We had fun," Draco started and changed the direction of the conversation and his voice completely. I dared to look at him finally and regretted it instantly. He looked guarding and unnatural now, his eyes were darker and his fists clenched. I could've sworn that the same darkness I once spotted in Harry's eyes during the fifth year were flashing through Draco, if only for a second, before his lips curved into a twisted and bad smile. With a dry, aristocratic voice that made the whole room cold he spoke, "Especially for me, shagging Weasels girlfriend was _extremely _rewarding."

If felt like he poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me, I knew somewhere deep in that we were a lie but those words, those three little words. . . Without thinking, a trademark that belonged to _anyone_ besides me, I started yelling. "Ron is more than you'll ever be, Malfoy, you're just an rotten Death Eater who sits in your manor all day without even carrying to live. Nobody cares about you!"

"That filthy word," Draco hissed with dark eyes, completely ignoring or not even thinking of answering to my words. "That's what you expected me to call you, right? I thought you knew that I was innocent."

"Me being _that_, Isn't that one of all the flaws with this business proposal?" I hissed back, hurt and furious and very unwilling to answer any questions he asks. "Are any Malfoy's even remotely close to having human feelings or does darkness lain in your genes?"

"I know I was wrong thinking that you were a good lawyer, it doesn't matter if the court declared me innocent. I'll always be Draco Malfoy to you, the rich little dark brat who doesn't feel," Draco shouted for a change, face shifting in different tones of red and states of anger. "It's all a lie, a game, a case or an educational experiment or even a bloody fight for you so it has to be for me too, admit it."

I stopped and realized that it was _exactly_ what I thought.

"I love you," Draco added, staring coldly at me and I was astounded by his honesty. He told me, straight out without any kind of safeties or grand gestures to back his words out. They were there and they spoke his truth, with or without me saying it back. "There you have it, the miserable truth, now get the hell out of my life, _mudblood_."

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_Draco,  
I am so sorry, but you should be sorry too! I know I was wrong but we have communication problems, not that I say we like in that we should be a 'we'. We could be a 'we' if you want to. I think that we have so much to talk about and I know that I did wrong (again) and I can't even write you anything proper and I've written too much now haven't I. Merlin, I wrote that too. Well, I'm not sending this letter._

The rest became a mess of inkblots and suppressed tears that found their way out. It does not do to dwell in dreams, Dumbledore once said (bless his soul) but somehow I preferred the dwell where we did twirling and kissing rather than this game I won and lost. I couldn't come over the fact that that I had somehow managed to have my dreams fulfilled and loose them in matters of words, cruel, vicious and hurting words. He called me, he said . . . we were hurting and words are _so_ cruel.

I watched the letter of catastrophe, lies did look good in fresh parchment but the truth looked weak, blurry and needy. I rewrote it, with firmness and precise formulation.

_Draco,_

_We have matters do discuss.  
Love and us to be more accurate.  
2 P.M sharp, you know where.__  
Hermione._

I was ready to hand my life to the loony ministry owl I brought back from work to nurse. There was no spill of the matters of the heart, nor the unnecessary dialogue in which I told him that I needed him and wanted him. I left the feelings in the other note where inkblots and tears were smudging my otherwise clean slate.

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I watched my muggle clock with huge fascination today.

_1.59._ Okay, Any minute now. I returned to my papers but couldn't hold my focus. I looked up again and kept my eyes on it. _2.01._ Okay, so he's a bit late. He'll be here. _2.04._ Okay, so he's really late, _very_ tacky. _2.06._ No, he's never late. 2 A.M sharp is 2 A.M sharp. _2.08._ Where is he? _2.09._ The Knight Bus might've hit him. _2.10._ Serves him right for being _this_ late. _2.13._ Draco? _2.16._ He's not coming, is he? He's not coming at all. _2.18._ Where did all the air go?

I was poise; I was poise breaking down in a corner in her office trying to figure out where all the air went. No, I was more than poise; I was Hermione Granger not just thinking that her glued heart was broken but knowing that it was. It's when you're all alone that tears that _almost_ fall hurt the most, especially if they're _almost_ shed on the behalf of Draco _sodding_ Malfoy.

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It's strategically better to eat alone and manage to cram in work, much and tons of work so you never get the time to think of things. That's how I managed to survive the dark ages, especially when it came to the worries I dealt with when it came to all the difficult tasks me and Harry and Ron. . . and Ron had to overcome. There is nothing like hiding behind pages where stories are more substantial than your own but tonight books couldn't save me. It had been a week now without a word from him, no, _Malfoy_, and truth be told I needed someone, I needed Harry.

With home-charmed pudding in my left hand, my wand in my right and a plastered smile across my I Apparated to the familiar home of Harry and Ginny to get hugged and loved and reminded that I wasn't alone. I knocked and waited.

"Hello," Ron said to greet me when he opened _Harry_ and _Ginny's_ door. I stared at him. He stared at me. Needless to say that we stood there, staring as hexed trolls. His blue eyes looked calm and kind, his robes were sewed to fit his long, built body, his large hands were holding a steady grip of the door knob and the wind that blew past me made the red hair that shifted in everything from dark red to light orange blow backwards so effortlessly.

"You don't live here," I managed to squeeze out after analyzing the last freckle on Ron's nose. "Where are Harry and Ginny?"

"At the Doctor, Ginny felt ill, nothing major," Ron explained shortly but added, "Is that your charmed pudding?" while suppressing the urge of stealing it from my grip.

"Okay, yes, it is," I said and offered him the pudding without thinking twice. I was still startled by meeting Ron when I was expecting Harry. And Ginny.

He kindly accepted my pudding and said, "You make one of the best charmed puddings there is."

"Who dares to compete with _your_ mother?" I asked him harshly and crossed my arms, ready to fight him any second (without knowing why really).

Ron beamed. The careless joy that only Ron produced was filling every vein in my body, "You're a close second, Hermione, come in."

With those words he let me into the house of Harry and Ginny, invited me to share their food, rooms and entertainment without rethinking the ownership. While we laughed at anecdotes from the past (and almost spoiling ourselves hazardously with the Butterbeer we knew Harry hid under the sink) I was once again reminded of why I fell for Ron Weasley.

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"Hey, Hermione," Ron said, entering through my office door half past one.

I smiled at the sight of the familiar face in my office. "Hey, Ron."

"Up for tonight?" Ron asked, innocently. We were going over to Harry and Ginny's for the fourth night since we clashed into each other there. As friends of course, we were just hanging out and talking and Ron Apparated to my door with me every night to make sure I was safe because we were just friends.

"Of course," I said, happily. "I'll bring the pudding," I added as a joke.

"Ginny will swallow the whole thing. Hey, speaking of hungry Weasleys, want to grab something for late lunch?" Ron asked kindly and I saw his ears turn scarlet. "Uhm, if you're done here I mean."

"Oh," I observed him carefully and then the muggle watch behind him, twenty nine minutes left to two. . . "I can't right now sorry."

There is still someone I'm expecting, and papers that need to be attended to, and there is still hope.

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Nights are worst because I wake up in cold sweat, haunted by dreams of kisses I once had.

"Draco," is the first of names I mutter in my sleep and I let my hands try to find his familiar body in my own sheets. His lines and the feel of cold and warmth and forbidden sensations were nowhere to be found. "Draco," I repeat while slowly falling into the world where my imaginations are more vivid than this bitter reality.

_You're not alone. You'll never be. _I dream him saying in the manor were we're spinning in_. There are a thousand flowers in your hair. _He whispers softly as he plucks them as expected and kisses the last one tenderly. _Stay here. _He begs while I offer him my hand_. Because_ _all I want is to dance with you._

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"Are you okay?"

It was Ron who asked but Ginny, Harry and little James was looking at me with the same expression as Ron had when I came back from my half sleep, half misery in the Potters living room couch.

"I'm fine," I replied but I wasn't. I couldn't sleep because there were manors and spinning Draco's and flowers in my hair.

"You dozed off," Ron said, stating the obvious. Of course I did when I hadn't slept for a good week without waking up, agonized.

Harry was always the one of those two who understood me the best. "Perhaps you should take her home, Ron, she needs to sleep."

"Yeah, its James bedtime too," Ginny added sympathetically despite the fact that James bright, brown eyes looked awake and curiously at me.

"Yeah, I better be going," I said and stood up to thank the three Potters with kisses and hugs.

"I better follow," Ron said and copied my goodbyes (minus the awkwardly manly hug he gave Harry).

We Apparated on the spot with linked fingers and risen wands. When the world formed itself again we found ourselves standing outside a half shabby, blue door that was the entrance to my apartment. This was the awkward part, standing in front of my door, as friends and saying goodbye as friends.

"Your door," Ron said and pointed towards my blue door.

"It seems to be my door, yes," I stated and did a silly nudge towards my blue door.

"Right, you better go inside," Ron told me and staring at his shoes.

I hesitated a while before I murmured, "You should follow me in," to my apartment keys.

"I should," Ron said and gave me a soft kiss so close to my lips that I felt tricked.

He turned around and Apparated with a crack! I didn't expect him to follow me in, because in the end of the day I was going to sit and wait for someone to come back to me and he was going to wait for me to come back to him.

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"Oh, Harry," I said in joy and embraced my friend tightly. He had been knocking on my apartment door to see how I was holding up, typical Harry and to give me some bad news. These 'bad news' made me jump with joy and hug him with no plants of letting go.

"You're killing me," Harry let out, followed by a smooth chuckle. "That would've been a first."

"Oh, don't joke about those things," I ranted but I refused to let him go from my tight hug.

"I know you, you're not heartless, I don't understand why the death of your poor owl brings you this much joy," Harry said and little sneeze followed by a muffled laughter, my hair was probably tickling his nose.

"Because it's all a misunderstanding, he never got it delivered, he loves me, he'll forgive me and I will forgive him back," I explained, more to myself than to Harry. The loony owl had managed to get itself killed during the flight (bless the feathered soul) and the Auror department had found it during a raid in a nearby warehouse. That's why _he_ never showed up, that's why he is sitting in his manor just waiting for me to come.

Because he said I love you and he needs me to say it too. "He loves me," I let out.

"Your owl?" Harry said, gasping for air somewhere behind my left ear.

"Yeah, my owl," I murmured, joyfully.

"Okay, but Hermione, you should let me go," Harry said but judging by his body language he didn't mind the extra long hug I gave, the fact that he still needed those extras made me sad and appreciative.

Laughing I told facts of life to my best friend. "I wouldn't let you go for the world Harry."

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"Draco," I banged at his door."Draco, open the door!"

Almost immediately the door flung open, none of the locks clicked or the charms were murmured, it was like he was expecting me, _or_ someone else. Everything I was going to tell him changed now. He was dressed in a black suit with his blond hair carefully placed back as usual and his eyes were sharp, paralyzing and dimming my mind. I was reminded once again of how beautiful he was with his poise, elegance and careless expressions.

"Granger," Draco said as greeting phrase. "I recall the moment when I told you to get the hell out of my life, you should too."

"Enough with the small talk Malfoy, I came here to talk," I started.

"It's been weeks since we last talked, why now?" Draco demanded.

"I wrote you, two days after, but the owl died," I explained while fingering the details on the front door.

"And the Hippogriff ate my homework," Draco said sarcastically but he looked like he was genuinely interested. "You should get a hawk, I know a great place."

How this conversation went from me trying to talk about things to hawk shopping I don't know but I changed the conversation immediately, "I don't need a hawk, I need you and me to be okay again."

Draco looked quite baffled by my choice of words. "I called you . . . you know."

"And I said that you're a rotten, you know," I defended. "We were both being . . . bad. That's why I came to talk because you said . . . those words, and I wanted to know if they were true."

"Those words?" Draco started but paused when he realized what I was talking about. The pink dots that appeared were not fitting in his otherwise cocky expression. "Right, those, does it matter?"

"It does, because I came here," And I paused because my heart was pounding somewhere outside my head. "I came here to say," I started again but before I uttered another word to my explanation I noticed that his eyes shifted from me to the manors entrance and I turned my head around to see what caught his eye.

I threw up a bit; a platinum blond woman with a slick, black dress appeared out of nowhere and she walked towards us with such a sway and self-confidence that I felt small.

"Who is she?" I demanded, outraged. She was breathtaking, gorgeous and her bosom seemed to jump up and down for every step she took but not in that slutty way as Lavender did it, no, this was a natural gift and she had some kind of elegance that I rarely see. I've seen it once and it was in Draco.

"No one," Draco lied but his eyes wavered between her and me for a while before he settled to stare at me, "Why are you here, Hermione, tell me."

"You – You, I _hate_ you," I told Draco before the beautiful blonde came to ear shot. "I came here to declare my hate for you!"

"No, you didn't," Draco acknowledged but when she was close enough to us to hear I watched him transform.

"Hey," she purred and placed a feather light kiss on Draco's cheek. I know that kiss, its seduction.

He has a small smile across his lips when she was done and his tone was turning to the dry, cold Malfoy tone I grew to hate during my Hogwarts years, "Hello," he said to her but his eyes were on me and they looked disconnected from the world.

I stood there, like a moron until she turned around from fingering on Draco's collar to present herself. "Astoria Greengrass," she said and reached out her polished hand to shake mine. I felt unworthy all the sudden as I grabbed her hand and shook it.

"Hermione Granger," I said with emphasis on my name. _Hermione Granger the war hero, the intelligent one, the famous lawyer and the easy tricked woman who happened to fall for your date._

"Oh," She said and shot me a shy smile, not obnoxious or hate filled but shy and almost, _almost_ unsecure. "We should go, Draco, but I need to powder my nose," Astoria exclaimed when turning back to fingering Draco's collar. "I'll leave you to discuss your juridical matters with your lawyer. I'll find my way."

She went behind Draco and into the manor, leaving me with the double-crossing Draco Malfoy. I know that I was his lawyer but that wasn't _everything_ I was. Was it? But how would she know? She was Astoria Greengrass and she found her way in the huge manor. She found her way and Draco let her found her high heeled way.

"How long?" was the only question of all the thousands I could ask, somehow _everything_ clicked.

"A while –," Draco started, giving me a pair of eyes that tried to talk but there was nothing in them that I wanted to hear. When he noticed my narrowing eyes he retorted with the most awful line. "It's not what you think – ".

"It's exactly what I think," I hissed. "It explains everything, the messy hair and underwear that night I came knocking, the sterilized furniture . . . you never lo –, you never saw anything, did you?"

"You're extremely stupid for being intelligent, perhaps _Weasel_ deserves you then. You're the only thing of worth he'll ever get anyways." Draco snapped, furious. "I'm doing you a favor because unlike you I know that we are temporarily. Move on."

"We didn't even start so don't try to be all heroic and carrying," I interrupted. "And you're the one in love enough to tell me!"

"And you aren't?" Draco asked. He called my bluff instantly, causing me to feel exposed. I glared at him only to see the same insecurity that I saw in the preparation room before his destiny was going to be settled. He waited for a verdict but I was still contemplating the evidence that were supporting his wish to let him free, to let him hear me say that I loved him.

Our silence was interrupted by the sound of a pair of high heels against hard surface and the determined voice of Draco pretending that everything was okay, "If you want the _papers_ by _tomorrow_ I'll bring them to you, your _office_."

I came back to reality and was reminded once again that I was so angry, with him and the world. "Save yourself the Apparation," I hissed and turned around to leave him and _her_ in an instance.

I walked, so determined and ready to curse everything around me and I waited for him to call back for me, or even stupefy me but he didn't. 'You're not looking back', I thought to myself but I did after chanting those words in my head because I couldn't help myself. When I did look back I saw the patina blondes lips locked onto each other impatiently and then a heavy door, his door, closed behind them.

It was over as the locks clicked somewhere behind me and he staggered with her up for the stairs, kissing her like he once kissed me. These were the truths all along.

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"Ron," I cried as I banged his door, I did a lot of door banging these days. "Ron, I know you're awake."

Nothing.

"Ron," I pleaded as I felt my knees bend under me. "Please, Ron, Please."

Nothing.

"Ron, open the door, I don't want to be alone," I whispered. There's no him, there's no Harry without Ron and . . . "I – please open."

Ron opened his apartment door, only to find me on the floor, tear striped and devastated.

"Hermione, you're crying," Ron acknowledged, shock in his voice.

"I – I," I started. "I needed you," I heard myself say without knowing it. It has always been Ron. Hasn't it?

"Shh," Ron said and sat down on the floor and held me tightly. "I'm here."

"Stay here," I begged, chocking more than pronouncing correctly. "Please stay."

.

.

.

.

Ron stayed; for two months now he stayed by me and I fell, not hard or recklessly or even stupidly in love but comfortably. He loved me and I loved him and it was easy. We were Ron&Hermione, Hermione&Ron and when he said I love you there were words with no undertone nor suppressed love/hate. I loved him dearly but I couldn't explain a few things. Like the crying I did more often nowadays, the hunger feeling I lost and the sense of despair I felt every time I wasn't with him, or anybody for that matter.

"You're the safe bet," I whispered every night as I kissed his forehead before lying next to him to sleep. 'You're the right bet and the stakes are high, you're the safe bet and I hate losing' I told myself every night in my head and I try to sleep next to him as quickly as possible. Every waking minute is a wait for the night where I fall in to the world of dreams, the same kind of dreams where kisses have sounds, flowers are in thousands and _he_ is sweeping me off my feet.

When Ron rolls over and places an arm over my hip, unknowingly of his movement in his sleep, I feel the dream slipping.

I woke back up to a reality where the freckled redhead is wrapped around me. I turned a little to the left, a little to the right, rolled over to face him and gave up when I laid flat on my stomach. It didn't quite fit, not perfectly and we were broken and torn but Ron stayed here with his arm around me, like always, and I was not alone.

.

.

.

.

* * *

**SWEDISHA/N:** OKAY! So _daysandweeks_ five chapter challenge in its entire honor, without it this fic wouldn't be born. I started out, wanting to do a cannon compliant Dramione Fic (oops, sorry readers!) but I'm falling in love with Dramione and the conflict inside of me is not good!

Sadly/happily I'll need at least a sixth chapter/epilogue damnit but I'm not sure that the parts of the possible Ep I've written will do _Crossing Lines_ justice. So tell me! Is it really 'COMPLETE'? Is it really/should it really end like this. . . What do you say? **ALL UP FOR AN EPILOUGE SAY I!**

Yours confusingly,  
Lumos!


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